excerpt #1

There is a sound of key trying to find lock and I am awake. A look at my watch tells me it’s 4.23 am. There is more footering, then the key fits and the door opens and it is my daughter and friend home from their Saturday night fun.
They are quiet and whisper their way into her room, there is some short conversation I can’t make out, a few giggles then silence. They are quickly asleep and I am left lying awake here in my room, the sodium street light projecting a phantom room onto the wall opposite.
Outside a fox yowls.